How Thou Art Fallen
by Saint Mirror
Summary: A take on what happened when Satan fell from heaven.


A/N: Hello all! I've been gone for the better part of a year. Graduating high school and my job have taken up all my time. I did write this while I was in boot camp and have been waiting to reclaim my laptop so I could get this up. Enjoy.

A/N 2: One more note; I am aware that Gabriel is portrayed as a male, conventionally, and though their names are masculine, angels themselves are spirit beings and as such are able to take whatever form suits them as it would not take away from who God created them to be.

In this work Gabriel is a female not because it holds any particular meaning for this story but because that is how I saw Gabriel in my mind's eye as I was attempting to put the epic scene I saw before me to paper. It didn't seem right to change it just because of technicalities. At any rate, I hope Gabriel's change in gender isn't enough to keep you from enjoying reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it.

How Thou Art Fallen

Michael stood on the precipice of Heaven with tears running down his face and splashing on to his simple battle scarred armor. Blood oozed from several wounds decorating his face and arms, staining his white clothes a red so deep it was almost black. The sweet wind tousled his curly brown hair and ran gentle fingers through the scraggly beard that had grown in the eternity he'd been fighting. His body ached with fatigue, his muscles screaming in incessant pain. Michael had never known such agony, and his soul shook with it.

Above the serenely rolling plains that were Heaven's outer borders, Michael could see the gorgeous swirling zephyrs that had been the first thing he'd seen when God breathed life into him. Their brilliant purples and golds reminded him of simpler times, of innocence and learning to fly alongside his brothers and sisters, of laughter and love and happiness. Things that he wasn't sure could be regained. Behind him, he could hear Gabriel weeping brokenly in Raphael's arms, the gentle seraph's wings surrounding her shaking form. Of them all Gabriel was most hurt by the rebellion. When the call to arms rang throughout Heaven, she had been the one to rouse Michael from his shock-induced paralysis and thrust his sword into his hand screaming, "You are God's General, Michael! Fix this!" He had done his best to obey her demand, but he had never fought before, and the unfamiliar feeling of fear crept through his veins like acid. Even as he shrugged on his armor, Michael knew he would fail his fleet-winged sister.

Beside him Uriel could be heard whispering, "This isn't happening. Please, Father, this can't be happening," his arm wrapped around Raphael's shuddering shoulders. Michael had his bare foot planted firmly on Lucifer's heaving chest, briefly noting how small the pudgy brown toes seemed against the struggling angel's harsh black armor. Michael flexed his wings and winced, glancing behind him to see that half of his soft feathers were missing, ripped out by the being he now held beneath his feet. Lucifer saw the pain in Michael's face and the tears in his eyes and sneered, burning yellow eyes scorching his brother as he hisses, "Is this testimony of our Father's love for His creations? Look at you, Michael! You are pathetic! Powerful only because our Father permits you to be." Lucifer spread his arms wide, shifting beneath Michael's foot and instantly killing the grass that came into contact with him. "Behold my glory, Michael! No longer do I submit myself to One who is my equal. My throne I shall exalt above that of the Most High!" The ground beneath them trembled.

Around him the armies of Heaven each dangled a brother or sister angel over the edge waiting for Michael to pronounce God's judgment. Most of them managed to keep their composure, but there were a few who could be seen openly clinging to their captive, begging them to ask God for mercy. Michael knew they would not. With a weary sigh, Michael gathered Lucifer into his strong arms and dangled the rebellious angel over the edge by his gleaming white wings and intoned over Lucifer's screaming, "You, Lucifer, brightest seraph, light-bearer, are banished from the Almighty's sight and all of Heaven, and you and your seditious crew will await Judgment Day in Hell." So saying, Michael relaxed his grip and watched Lucifer fall shrieking from Heaven into the abyss to Hell. Instantly Lucifer's followers were cast down with him. Michael watched quietly as the damned angels disappeared from view. "How thou art fallen, Lucifer, son of the morning," Michael murmured, silent tears falling into the abyss while Gabriel wailed in Raphael's arms.

Far below Heaven, Lucifer tumbled down. At first shock quieted him, and he was able to calmly observe Michael falling to his knees, torn wings outstretched, beating his chest and sobbing bitterly as the Gates of Heaven slammed shut behind the falling angels. The emptiness of the black abyss that separated Heaven from the created universe was void of any sensation, and this numbness only intensified the pain the angels felt when they entered the universe and their wings instantly caught fire. Screaming in surprise, Lucifer tried to put the flames out only to watch with growing horror as the flames traveled up the soft skin of his arms and settled in his hair and clothes, consuming him. He saw Zadkiel, wings aflame and eyes sizzling in their sockets, begging God to forgive him even as he fell farther from Heaven. The Fall tore skin away from living flesh. Eyes that once shone with holy fire now bubbled and spurted out of deformed sockets while their owners scratched feverishly at them with fingers now elongated and cruel. The fire burned away their beautiful white feathers and left behind wings blistered and knotted with puss nodules. Silky hair was gone, ears melted away and perfect feet curled in upon themselves like enormous ingrown toenails.

Despite the indescribable pain and hatred Lucifer felt, he could not help but marvel at the sheer beauty of God's works as he and his company Fell. A supernova rushed up to meet him and as quickly was gone, its hues dazzling his eyes even as they boiled out of his face. The ashes of his wings were caught up in solar winds and blown away. Gases from nebulas were like acid in his ravaged skin, and again he opened his mouth intending to scream obsentities at God. Instead he heard himself sobbing, pleading for his Father to soothe him as He had done when Lucifer was a small child.

But as he Fell tumbling head over feet, limbs flailing and burnt hair whipping wildly around his disfigured face, by Earth's lone moon toward the small blue planet, he knew that his call would never be heeded again. Closing his empty eyes, Lucifer accepted his fate. The Earth opened up to swallow him when he finally landed.

-End-

A/N 3: So there it is...a curious concept but I think it's a good one.


End file.
